Audio from displayport

[ikonix360]

Agreed about a cheap DAC.

I suppose it might be better to get an extractor with toslink or coax output and then get a DAC.

I do have this DAC that I bought a few years ago to use with a Yamaha Bluetooth adapter that only had coax output and it worked good.

Even used it with the SPDIF out on a sound card and my Xbox 360 with good results.



So I suppose that DAC may make it easier.

IT is so anal about the computers that they don't even want us playing audio CDs on the computers so I have a Windows 95 PC that controls a test station and it's CD ROM drive has a headphone output which I feed to the amp so I can play CDs if so desired.

Here's the setup

 

[PP Mguire]

So now you're dealing with overpowering extra noise for the sake of better quality in a noisy environment? I worked in the same kinda environment for 6 years (Lockheed), seems kinda pointless to me when all we cared about was just having some music going. I too can tell the difference, but my mind says is the cost worth it and as Joe said cheap ones can actually hamper quality. You would need to convert DP to HDMI then get yourself an HDMI extractor. Most that I know of don't require an output signal to extract the audio to optical (mine doesn't).

Edit: Wait if you can't have phones in there where did the pictures come from? And with all that analog gear I'd assume IT isn't that anal about outside electronics, especially if you could bring in convertors that physically connect to the PC. Lockheed was the same way, but at the end of the day if the device didn't require admin to pull down drivers and install in the background they were none the wiser.

 

[ikonix360]

There's no cable or box that can go straight from displayport to SPDIF is there?

So I can eliminate the HDMI to DVI cable then.

That will save some money.

I may try the converter I selected then see how it's DAC sounds and if it isn't good then I'll bring the FiiO from home and try it.

I may just bring it anyways so I can do a comparison between both.

I'm rather picky about audio as in I must have a decent quality system whenever possible and practical.

Doesn't have to be high end although if I had the extra money to throw around I'd certainly buy a real nice DAC.

Even in the noisy environment I can still hear differences in audio quality.

I suppose that comes from running sound at church for the last 15 years.

 

[Joe C]

I see that there is a Topping D90SE that is wireless... but it'll cost you $900.00....LOL
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/topping-d90se-review-balanced-dac.24235/

 

[ikonix360]

Lol even if wireless was allowed at work I doubt I'd spend $900 on it unless there's definitive proof that it is worth the price as in I'd have to listen to it compared to other lower cost things and see if I hear $600-$800 worth of improvement.

 

[Joe C]

I would not spend anything like that on a DAC either.

 

[ikonix360]

I ordered the audio extractor linked earlier in this topic and a displayport to HDMI cable.

Will try them Monday.

Here's one of the two speakers


Here's the powered sub

 

[ikonix360]

I got the extractor today.

Tried it on the HDMI on my home PC with the monitor disconnected and I compared its analog out with the FiiO analog out. Only real difference I can hear is the analog output from the extractor is slightly lower which can be compensated for by a slight increase in the volume control setting on the amp.

So it looks like the DAC isn't needed at work.

 

[ikonix360]

The maximum bit rate is 24 bit 48KHz.

The PC sound card is 24 bit 192KHz.

I suppose other things may make the sound card not as good even though it has a higher bitrate.

I may go ahead and get the HDMI to DVI cable as windows is treating it as another display.

Didn't do that on my home PC I don't think, but I wasn't using a displayport to HDMI cable either.

EDIT:

Seems I've ran into to a problem.

Where I work we use a smart card to log into the computers and once the card is removed about 30 seconds later the display turns off and that also turns off the audio from the displayport.

So in order to use the audio extractor I'd need to keep the display on somehow and settings for that I cannot control. The computer auto locks after about 10-20 minutes so when I'm working and not using my PC I'd have to at least move the mouse about every 10 minutes.

EDIT:

Maybe the PC isn't locking because it thinks I'm doing something like running a presentation given audio is going through the displayport.

 

[ikonix360]

I brought the FiiO DAC to work today.

I don't know if the FiiO sounds a little more full because it's got a slightly higher output or if it is because it's actually more full sounding.

However I could open both up and see what DAC chip they use and what OP-AMP is being used then look both the DAC and OP-AMP chips up and see which is the better DAC and OP-AMP.

I'd be willing to bet it's the FiiO given they have a lot of other quality products.

Here's a review on the FiiO

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.il...-d03k-taishan-digital-to-analog-converter/amp

It is 24 bit 192 KHz so it's instantly better.

However I most likely won't notice the improvement as the audio extractor only can do up to 24 bit 48 KHz.

However I will keep using it though.

I might get a toslink cable to connect it to the extractor as that would further isolate the stereo from the PC, although the FiiO is powered by the USB port on the PC, but I could get a USB power supply for it and plug it into the switched power socket on the amp.

There's no actual ground loop that I need to eliminate though, but I figured it might be better to ensure the amp is not connected to the computer in any way electrically.

However If I play no audio and turn the amp up full the FiiO DAC is dead silent whereas the analog audio out of the extractor has a slight bit of digital noise only heard when I place my ear near the tweeter.

So the FiiO is better in that respect.